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25 year old news of the ATV scene in Yorkshire
- October 11th 2002
GB3YX on the air at last. The licence for for our new 3cm ATV repeater came through early in 2002 and following a few setbacks building the equipment we finally installed the antennas and mast-mounted TX/RX on Sunday 18th August 2002, thanks to the efforts of Dave, G4TIW, the fearless mast climber!After running in beacon-mode for a few days the repeater went “live” on August 27th. Reception reports have been very encouraging so far, prompting a flurry of equipment building across yorkshire!
- July 6th 2001
GB3YT to get some company. It’s a lonely existence being a repeater. Sitting on a cold bleak hilltop in all weathers waiting for a contact. Only ever getting visitors when things go wrong. Having to beacon away twenty four hours a day, rain or shine….
Oh, it’s so lonely!
We have been feeling guilty about this for a while so we’ve taken pitty on the poor thing and decided to get it some company in the form of a companion repeater.
Our application for GB3YX, a 3cm ATV repeater to be co-sited with YT is currently under consideration by the RA. More information can be found HERE.
- September 8th 2000
GB3YT gets a helping hand. As a result of very generous sponsorship from G1MFG.com we now have the makings of a new transmitter, linear and receiver for the repeater. The MFG modules need some work to get them up to “repeater standard” and to build them into rackmount cases so it will be a little while before they are commissioned. Watch this space for more news. We are now very short of funds so if you feel moved to contribute please feel free to contact Geoff G8CHN. Details on the contacts page.
- July 3rd 2000
YT gets cleaned up. On Monday July 3rd we fitted an improved 5-pole interdigital filter to the repeater transmitter. The effect is to clean up the transmit spectrum considerably and make the repeater more “friendly” to other users of the 23cm band. The filter passband loss has reduced the repeater EIRP slightly though users should notice little or no difference to the signal. As ever, reports are welcome.
- 4th June 2000
GB3YT goes on the air. The equipment finally made it onto site on Saturday 3rd June and was left stewing overnight. Then at 14.30 GMT on Sunday June 4th the repeater finally came on air. Initial reception reports were excellent and we are still building up a picture of the repeater’s coverage area. Reports are always welcome.
One slight disappointment was the level of radar interference on the repeater input. We expected some interference because of the height of the repeater and its good takeoff to the South East but we were surprised to see just how bad it was. A check with a spectrum analyser on site showed radar transmissions covering over half of the 23cm band, peaking at an astonishing -10dBm (0.07V) after the preamp. We are looking into various schemes to cure this problem. Watch this space!
- May 1st 2000 Antennas are installed.
- After weeks of preparation the Alford Slot antennas are finally ready.
- The Heliax cable is on site, the connectors have been acquired, the sun’s shining, the ladders are here so there are no more excuses.
- It’s a long climb up that mast, particularly when the two “volunteers” are not keen on depths.
- Heights are fine – we can look up as far as we like – it’s *down* that’s the problem!
- The “volunteers” were Dave, G6BIU and Allan, G3TQA with Geoff G8CHN hauling on the ropes from below. The weather kept fine for us and the installation went smoothly. For more information on the antenna system please see the technical pages.